Harlem Shake and brandy shots mark Purim

'Harlem Shake' comes to Tel Aviv for Purim; Women of the Wall to hold megila reading in Jerusalem.

Purim Tel Aviv 2013.
(photo credit:REUTERS)

Purim’s carnival atmosphere spread out across the country on Sunday, with
revelers of all kinds and ages soaking up the holiday cheer, many bedecked in
bright, loud and extravagant costumes.

As in every year, traditional
Adloyada Purim parades were held in cities and towns throughout the country,
wending their way through town centers and major urban
thoroughfares.

Holon’s Adloyada, one of the most renowned, included more
than 4,500 participants making merry, including dancers, artists, musicians and
other performers from around the country who all marched through the streets of
the city.

The parade this year included a toy train containing 20,000
flowers and a gigantic baroque music box, 10 meters by five meters, from which
burst out dancers and musicians to further enliven the celebrations.

The
settlement of Kiryat Arba held its Adloyada on Friday, in which over 1,000
people, young and old, streamed through the town’s streets, while other large
parades took place on Sunday in Givatayim and Kfar Saba, among
others.

The latest Internet meme, the Harlem Shake, was credibly
replicated in Tel Aviv on Sunday, with thousands of people taking part in a mass
Harlem Shake dance in the city.

The Women of the Wall are scheduled to
hold a megila reading for women at the Western Wall on Monday morning on Shushan
Purim, the date on which Purim is celebrated in Jerusalem, which falls the day
after the holiday is marked everywhere else. The organization said it was
expecting as many as 200 participants to attend its service.

In one Purim
development, the grand rabbi of the Karlin- Stolin hassidic dynasty Rabbi Baruch
Shochat reportedly required anyone with a smartphone to hand it over if they
wished to receive the shot of brandy shot which the hassidic leader
traditionally distributes on Purim at his court in Givat
Ze’ev.

Smartphones are widely disapproved of in the haredi world because
of the unfiltered access they provide to content to the Internet. According to
the haredi news website B’hadrei Haredim, Shochat has until now refrained from
banning the devices but was not ready to tolerate them among his hassidim over
the Purim festivities.